Catfish Identity

is Abby’s older sister, friends Nev on Facebook. They begin to excessively message each other. The

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However, as more as the prevalence of cyberbullying climbs so do the people saying just what Brett Warnke says in his article “The Danger of Cyberbullying”, “why don’t kids just unplug?” Well, the thing is, that they can’t. Social media is everywhere and people are integrating it into everything now. Going back to Warnke’s article, Eden Foster comments on technology, “[The] use of technology has extended beyond simple entertainment”. Humans now use technology, not only to entertain ourselves, but also in our everyday lives, it’s like it’s “infiltrated the confines of the home” (Warnke 24). Things that happen solely online affect us in real life, especially negative things such as cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is something that, according to Kirk Sigmon in his article titled “Sacrificing the First Amendment to catch ‘Cyberbullies’”, children should be able to avoid and ignore, but it just doesn’t happen that way. In The Ophelia Project’s fact sheet on cyberbullying there is a statistic that states “60% of targets said that their online experiences as a target of cyberbullying affected them at school, home, and with friends and reported experiencing feelings of frustration, anger, and sadness,” showing that these negative online experiences follow a person into the outside world. The feelings mentioned in the statistic can lead to a victim to hurt themselves or to develop mental issues, which is exactly what

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This may be because victims are overwhelmed with the fact that the entire world knows their embarrassment. They feel they are alone on one side and the rest of the world is on the other side, hence they feel powerless and they feel there is no place where they can escape hence, some Cyberbullied victims choose a path of ending their own lives and some come out and give it a fight. Those who choose none, become victimised forever with prolong depression, trauma and low self-esteem. In general, they develop a sense of NO TRUST within the

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Author Danielle Keats Citron’s article “Free Speech Does Not Protect Cyber harassment” mainly addresses it as a social weapon of judgement aimed at the intended person out of hate and cruelty with disregard for the pain they cause. She suggests more parental involvement and action towards teens who engage in this as well as specific laws

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Since the introduction of the World Wide Web and mainstream use of the internet to access information in 1990, the way people interact with each other has changed. Social media has opened up new mediums for people to communicate with each other. People exchange messages on Facebook, post tweets on Twitter, and “selfies” on Instagram. These new mediums have also changed the way people find romance and love. In this modern era, it is not uncommon to see people dating other people they have met on the internet. This has opened the door for “catfishing”, lying about your true identity on the internet in order to lure someone into a relationship. This has become so common that Molly McHugh of digitaltrends.com4 has described it as an epidemic. This essay will explore how catfishing has developed with the introduction of social media, why people catfish, and why talking over the internet makes it difficult to spot when someone is presenting a false identity. It will also identify the impacts that catfishing has had on society.

Technology and the advancements that come with it have had an enormous influence on American society. The internet, being amongst the greatest technological changes in this country. Establishment of the internet has created a brand-new set of issues, among them, being the introduction of cyberbullying. The internet can have both positive and negative consequences on society. “Positive effects of the internet include: It is easier to do research; communication with family, friends, and relatives is faster; there is a great possibility to earn money while working from home; faster business transactions and cheaper products; along with savings on travel cost.” On the other-hand “negative effects of the internet include: Children, young adults, and even adults become addicted to online games; pornography is rampant; loss of the human touch; criminal elements use the information to advance their malicious intents; cyberbullying; as well as the abandonment of family.”

What is cyberbullying? “Cyberbullying is the use of the Internet, smartphones, or other electronic communication devices to spread harmful or embarrassing information about another person” (Cyberbullying). Cyberbullying is very well known to the world of social media. We used to have bullies who would harass us at school which was bad enough but now worth cyberbullying it follows our teenagers everywhere. Home used to be a safe place but our technology no longer allows that safe place. Not only is the cyberbullying bad for the victim but it is also bad for the person on the other side of the screen making these vicious comments. Anyone can go online and say whatever they want about another person because they are not

Cyberspace is a non-physical environment created by computers interoperating on a network. People can interact in ways that are similar to reality, but does not require physical movement beyond typing. Advanced technology established this parallel world, ‘cyberspace’. This can be convenient for people to chat, shop, share, explore or research online, but it can also be a disadvantage at the same time. The prime examples of the disadvantages are, people are able to create fake, imaginative identities and use it to abuse others and this can lead to serious issues, such as sexual abuse or child grooming; and since, the Internet can be recognised as a parallel world to reality, this discourages people to have face-to-face human interaction. Consequently, cyberspace can be harmful to all people, because there are hardly any restrictions on the Internet. Technology inaugurated this and it is having an inimical influence on the majority of people who have access to the Internet on a daily basis.